E mailing etiquette

be.
Remember that reading an e-mail is harder than reading
printed communications

and a long e-mail can be very
discouraging to read.

Be concise and to the point

and pre-empt further questions. If you do not answer all

the questions in the original email, you will receive further e-mails regarding the unanswered questions, which will not only waste your time and your customer’s time but also cause considerable frustration. Moreover, if you are able to pre-empt relevant questions, your customer will be grateful and impressed with your efficient and thoughtful customer service.

Answer all QUESTIONS

grammar and punctuation give a bad impression of your company,

it is also important for conveying the message properly. E-mails with no full stops or commas are difficult to read and can sometimes even change the meaning of the text. And, if your program has a spell checking option, why not use it?

USE PROPER SPELLING, GRAMMAR & PUNCTUATION

also include personal i.e. customized content. For this reason auto

replies are usually not very effective. However, templates can be used effectively in this way.
Some questions you get over and over again, such as directions to your office or how to subscribe to your newsletter. Save these texts as response templates and paste these into your message when you need them. You can save your templates in a Word document, or use pre-formatted emails. Even better is a tool such as Reply Mate for Outlook (allows you to use 10 templates for free).

make it personal. Use templates for frequently used responses

receive a quick response. If they did not want a

quick response they would send a letter or a fax. Therefore, each e-mail should be replied to within at least 24 hours, and preferably within the same working day. If the email is complicated, just send an email back saying that you have received it and that you will get back to them. This will put the customer's mind at rest and usually customers will then be very patient!

ANSWER SWIFTLY

than reading from paper, the structure and lay out is

very important for e-mail messages. Use short paragraphs and blank lines between each paragraph. When making points, number them or mark each point as separate to keep the overview.

USE PROPER STRUCTURE & LAYOUT

IF YOU ARE SHOUTING. This can be highly annoying and

might trigger an unwanted response in the form of a flame mail. Therefore, try not to send any email text in capitals.

ABOUT CAPITALS

an email before they send it out, as can be

seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained in emails. Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.

Be concise READ THE EMAIL BEFORE YOU SEND IT

such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out

loud). The recipient might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations and in business emails these are generally not appropriate. The same goes for emoticons, such as the smiley :-). If you are not sure whether your recipient knows what it means, it is better not to use it.

TAKE CARE WITH ABBREVIATIONS AND EMOTICONS

to the recipient as well as yourself. For instance, when

you send an email to a company requesting information about a product, it is better to mention the actual name of the product, e.g. 'Product A information' than to just say 'product information' or the company's name in the subject.

USE A MEANINGFUL SUBJECT

your email address is 'live'.
Confirming this will only generate even

more spam.
Therefore, just hit the delete button or use email
software to remove spam automatically.

DON’T REPLY TO SPAM